Paper Review

A systematic approach to self-reviewing academic papers before submission. Covers a 5-aspect review checklist, reverse-outlining for structural clarity, figure/table quality checks, and rebuttal preparation.

When to Use This Skill

• User wants to review or check a paper draft before submission
• User asks for feedback on paper quality or completeness
• User wants to prepare for potential reviewer criticism
• User mentions "review paper", "check my draft", "self-review"

If the user has already received reviewer comments and needs to write a rebuttal, use the paper-rebuttal skill instead.

Prerequisites

Before starting review, confirm the paper-writing handoff checklist is satisfied: all sections drafted, claims anchored to evidence, limitation section present, figures finalized, and no unresolved \todo{} markers. If any item is incomplete, finish writing before reviewing.

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The Perfectionist Approach

Strive for perfection: review your own paper, consider every question a reviewer might ask, and address them one by one.

The best defense against negative reviews is a thorough self-review:

1. Adversarial review: Read your own paper as a critical reviewer would
2. Seek advisor feedback: Ask your advisor to review — the more feedback, the better
3. Address everything: For every potential weakness you find, either fix it or prepare a defense

Counterintuitive Review Protocol

Run this protocol before final polishing:

1. Reject-first simulation: Force yourself to write a one-paragraph reject summary before writing any positive comments.
2. Delete one unsupported strong claim: If a strong claim lacks direct evidence, remove it instead of defending it.
3. Score trust, not only score gains: Papers with slightly lower gains but higher fairness and reproducibility often receive better review outcomes.
4. Promote one explicit limitation: Move one meaningful limitation from hidden notes into the paper; transparency can increase confidence.
5. Attack your novelty claim: Ask "Could a strong PhD derive this in one afternoon?" If yes, narrow and sharpen the novelty statement.

See references/counterintuitive-review.md

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5-Aspect Self-Review Checklist

Aspect 1: Contribution Sufficiency

The paper does not provide readers with new knowledge.

Ask these questions to evaluate whether the contribution is sufficient:

• Are the failure cases common? If the failure cases are frequent and obvious, reviewers may question whether the method is ready for publication.
• Is the proposed technique well-explored? If the technique is already widely studied, what new insight or improvement do we bring?
• Is the improvement foreseeable / well-known? If the improvement was predictable from combining known ideas, the novelty may be questioned.
• Is the technique too straightforward? A straightforward application of existing techniques may lack sufficient contribution.

Red flag: If "yes" to any of these, strengthen the contribution narrative or add more technical depth.

Aspect 2: Writing Clarity

Missing technical details, not reproducible; a method module lacks motivation.

• Missing technical details? Would a reader be able to reproduce the method from the paper alone?
• Missing module motivation? Does every module in the Method section explain why it exists, not just what it does?
• Paragraph structure: Does each paragraph have a clear topic? Does the first sentence state the point?
• Flow: Is the logical flow between paragraphs and sections smooth?
• Terminology: Are terms used consistently throughout?

Red flag: If reproducibility is in doubt, add implementation details or supplementary material.

Aspect 3: Experimental Results Quality

Only slightly better than previous methods; or better than previous methods but still not good enough.

• Marginal improvement? If the improvement over SOTA is very small, is it statistically significant?
• Absolute quality insufficient? Even if better than baselines, is the output quality good enough for the application?
• Visual quality: Do qualitative results look convincing? Are improvements visible?

Red flag: If improvements are marginal, emphasize other advantages (speed, generalizability, simplicity) or add more challenging test cases.

Aspect 4: Experimental Testing Completeness

Missing ablation studies; missing important baselines; missing important evaluation metrics; data too simple.

• Missing ablation studies? Is every core contribution ablated?
• Missing important baselines? Are recent SOTA methods included?
• Missing evaluation metrics? Are all standard metrics for this task reported?
• Datasets too simple? Do the benchmarks truly test the method's capabilities?
• No failure case analysis? Honest failure analysis increases credibility.

Red flag: Missing ablations or baselines is one of the most common reasons for rejection.

Aspect 5: Method Design Issues

Experimental setting is impractical; method has technical flaws; method is not robust; new method's costs outweigh its benefits.

• Impractical experimental setting? Are assumptions realistic for the intended use case?
• Technical flaws? Does the method have theoretical or conceptual weaknesses?
• Not robust? Does the method require per-scene hyperparameter tuning?
• Benefit < Limitation? Does the new module introduce limitations that outweigh its benefits?

Red flag: If the method requires significant tuning per scenario, add robustness experiments or acknowledge and address the limitation.

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Critical Reminder: Claims Must Have Support

Every claim in the paper (especially in the Abstract and Introduction) must be correct and supported by experiments. Some reviewers will reject a paper directly for unsupported claims.

Go through every claim in the Abstract and Introduction. For each claim:

• Is it factually correct?
• Is there an experiment or analysis that supports it?
• Is the supporting experiment clearly referenced?

An unsupported claim — especially in the Abstract or Introduction — can be grounds for rejection.

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Reverse-Outlining Technique

Extract the writing plan from finished paragraphs and check whether the flow is smooth.

After writing a section (or the entire paper):

1. Read each paragraph one at a time
2. Write down the main message of each paragraph in one sentence
3. Read the sequence of messages — does it flow logically?
4. Identify breaks: Where does the flow feel abrupt or illogical?
5. Fix: Reorganize paragraphs, add transitions, or split/merge paragraphs

Apply this to:

• Introduction (check narrative flow)
• Method (check if modules are presented in logical order)
• Experiments (check if results are presented in a meaningful sequence)

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Figure and Table Quality Checklist

Figures

• Pipeline figure highlights novelty (not just explanation)
• Pipeline figure looks distinct from prior work
• Teaser figure is compelling and self-contained
• All figures have clear captions
• Resolution is high enough for print
• Color-blind friendly (avoid red-green only distinctions)
• Figures are referenced in the text

Tables

• Captions are above the table
• No vertical lines
• Using booktabs (\toprule, \midrule, \bottomrule)
• Best results highlighted (bold/color)
• Metric direction indicated (↑/↓)
• Captions describe setup/notation, not results
• All tables are referenced in the text

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Conclusion and Limitation Check

• Conclusion summarizes contributions and key results
• Limitation section is present (reviewers frequently flag its absence)
• Limitations are about task/setting scope (like future work), not technical defects

  Rule: "If our method does not fall below SOTA metrics, it is not a technical defect"

• Limitations are honest but not self-defeating

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Pre-Submission Final Checks

• All references are complete (no "?" or missing entries)
• Author information matches venue requirements
• Page count is within limits
• Supplementary material is properly referenced
• No TODO markers remain in the paper
• Acknowledgments section is appropriate
• No accidental double-blind violations (for anonymous review)
• All cited works have complete bibliographic entries (authors, title, venue, year)
• No self-citations that break anonymity (for double-blind venues)
• Key related works cited — missing a prominent baseline paper can trigger rejection

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Handoff to Rebuttal

When reviews come back, use the paper-rebuttal skill for:

• Score diagnosis and review color-coding
• Champion strategy (arming your positive reviewer for discussion)
• 18 tactical rules for structure, content, and tone
• Counterintuitive rebuttal principles

Your self-review artifacts (reject-first simulation, claim-evidence audit, prebuttal drafts from the counterintuitive protocol) feed directly into the rebuttal process.

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See references/review-checklist.md for an expanded version of the 5-aspect checklist with more detailed sub-questions.

For adversarial stress testing and reject-risk thresholds, see references/counterintuitive-review.md.